


Tangled Up In Love

by flickawhip



Category: Home Fires (UK TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-11
Packaged: 2018-07-14 10:40:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7167788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flickawhip/pseuds/flickawhip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU</p><p>An unexpected romance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tangled Up In Love

None of them really means to fall into the habit of sharing a bed, but none of them is quite able to sleep alone. Mim always wakes from dreams of Bryn with tears, Erica stumbles blindly toward the bed in the now-spare room unable to handle the old bed she had shared with Will, and Steph will never be able to forget Stan in her arms, or over her. Sleep eludes them all. 

Steph, who is still over-tired and working far too hard, collapses a second time. Miriam is not the one to find her this time, this time it is Erica. Panic bites hard and she knows she has to get the woman up, and inside. She doesn’t leave Steph’s side even as they wait for her son. Once Stan, always known as Little Stan when his father was alive, is there she leaves to find Miriam and the others, she needs advice. 

Many are unsure how to handle it, it’s Miriam who comes out with the answer. Clearly they need to help her, and she needs sleep. The rest of the house has been left almost as a shrine to Stan, there is no reason to act like Steph wouldn’t have left the bedroom in a similar way. 

By the time they return to the house Steph is refusing to stay in the bed. The fear and pain in her eyes is the same fear Erica has known and, almost without knowing why, she gathers what she can imagine Steph may need to stay with her. 

Miriam’s own breakdown comes only a day later. David is the one to bring Miriam to Erica. The new doctor frightens his mother and Erica knows she can cope with the wound. The meat cleaver had slipped and Miriam was desperately hurt but not badly enough to need more than a little attention. Erica’s stitches are neat, and she is gentle as she can be when she wraps Miriam’s hand. The exhaustion in Miriam’s eyes hurts and Erica suggests simply that Miriam stay for the time being, that she let David handle the Butcher’s shop.   
Erica’s children have moved out and so she is free to bring both Steph and Miriam into her home. She cares very little for what people may say, or think. She is needed and she wants to help them both. 

The bed sharing aspect comes later, Steph wakes from sleep with fear in her eyes and seeks no comfort, curling into herself instead. Miriam, when she too wakes from dreams, is pained but she follows the sound of Steph’s sobs, her motherly instinct leading her to curl around Steph, cradle her closer. Steph surprises them both with how she clings to Miriam, burying her face into Miriam’s shoulder weakly. Erica sleeps on alone. 

The next night it is Erica who is woken by Miriam’s cries from the old bedroom she had shared with Will, she steels herself to see what she can do for her friend, hating that Miriam is still so desperately hurting. Miriam comes undone in her arms, unable to hold back any of the pain in her sobs. Steph joins them later, woken by her own nightmares and clearly shivering. She had not wanted to see help but, on waking alone and hearing Miriam’s soft sobs, she had been powerless to ignore them. She is the one to slip a hand into Miriam’s, curling their fingers together, her arm slipping around both Miriam and Erica, her eyes meeting Erica’s over Miriam’s head. They say nothing, Steph’s free hand slipping into Erica’s where it has fallen from Miriam’s back. 

It is Miriam who changes the position, rolling onto her back, dragging Steph’s arm over her, Erica releasing Steph’s hand to tangle her own with Miriam’s other hand, reaching behind Miriam’s back to tangle her fingers into Steph’s. Neither woman can avoid the need to rest their heads against Miriam’s shoulders, the three entangled together in a way that forms of need, but will become a habit. 

None of them discuss what is forming between them, although none is remotely surprised when, eventually, they become known as lovers.


End file.
